


You look exhausted

by Laoness



Series: Help, my neighbour is a Sith! [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, He gets love, I wrote this when my knees were aching badly, Maul is being taken care of, because Maul does not know how to show affection, occassional insults, soft, suffer with me Maul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26882749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laoness/pseuds/Laoness
Summary: The sleepless nights and trouble within his crime empire are really starting to wear Maul out... Maybe he should take a break.
Relationships: Darth Maul/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Help, my neighbour is a Sith! [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1915648
Kudos: 17





	You look exhausted

“This has been the third spice transport that got intercepted.” Maul almost hissed at the holoimage of Dryden Voss in front of him. The zabrak was enraged and it clearly showed on his face. Things were not going, as he wanted them to. “I suggest you start recruiting better spice runners if you value your life.” He added in a threatening tone and glared at the man. 

“I will not fail you again, my lord.” Voss replied after doing a little nod. Maul could clearly see that he was nervous. 

“It would be the last time.” Maul warned him before he ended the transmission. Losing one spice shipment after another was bad for his reputation. Who else knew about these transports? They were supposed to stay secret! Where did Voss find these incompetent spice runners? Perhaps he made a mistake with putting Voss in charge. However, he had proven to be rather competent in the past.

Maul sat in his chair for another moment and thought about the problem. Someone from his own organization could’ve leaked intel about the transports. It was a realistic possibility; especially since recently, there has been some unrest amongst the Crimson Dawn members. Maul had to deal with that issue himself not too long ago by making a statement (meaning having to kill some people). But there were only so many public appearances he could afford to make, before he’d be discovered by the Empire. Once that happened, his whole crime empire was most likely going to fall. Not to mention he’d be killed in the process.

All these problems and sleepless nights were really exhausting him. Maul sighed heavily and stood up, but almost sat back down again when he felt the stinging pain in his knees. One would think having cybernetic legs would solve the problem of pain. But it was the other way around. Having metal prosthetics only added more onto it. He grimaced but stood up straight before walking out of the dark room into the living quarters. With every step the pain in his knees increased, it seemed. 

His eyes had to adjust to the brightness of the other room. After blinking a few times he saw Shir sitting on the couch and cleaning one of her blasters. Maul was still convinced, she was actually obsessed with weapons. Weapons and money for that matter. To be fair, it was all she had ever known for the past fifteen to twenty years and old habits die hard. With a little groan Maul walked over to her and sat down beside the human. 

“You look exhausted.” Shir said when she moved her head to look at him and putting her blaster down. “Is the dark room really necessary?” 

“Yes.” Maul grumbled, without giving further explanation. Shir was a little taken back by his sharp response. Her comment was simply meant as a joke. He certainly was in desperate need of a few good nights of sleep and a break from all this crime stuff. She could only figure that things weren’t going well in his underworld. Shir never asked many questions about those things, that was his business. She didn’t need to know. 

“Those idiots are incapable of doing a simple errand run.” He continued his mumbling. Shir sighed softly and wanted to continue cleaning her weapons but she saw Maul rub the sides of his mechanic knees. She had seen him do so before, usually when he was in pain. 

“Does it hurt?” She asked and gestured at his knees.

“I’m fine.” Maul quickly stopped what he was doing and crossed his arms. But of course he wasn’t fine. The sides of his knees were aching badly and no matter if he sat down, was walking or standing – or lying down – it was hurting. It wasn’t a sharp pain, more like a numbing pain that wouldn’t go away and covered both sides of his knees, right were the mechanical joints were located. It made it hard to stand up and sit down. Especially the getting up part was terrible. And the more he focused on it, the more it started to hurt. The pain was bearable, but the fact it wasn’t fading bothered him and worsened his already ruined mood. Maul shifted his position to try and get more comfortable. First he pulled up his legs, but that only worsened the ache. Then he put his feet on the floor again – sitting like a normal person – but it just was no help. Maybe one leg pulled up and resting on the sitting… No, that didn’t help either. 

Not a minute after he told Shir he was fine, he started to rub his left knee again. The discomfort of the aching was visible on his face. He grimaced and grunted softly. Shir noticed and turned towards him with worry in her eyes. 

“Did you forget to take care of your prosthetics again?” Her tone was almost accusing, although she just wanted the best for him. He was suffering enough already. But then again, this was entirely his own fault. 

“I did not.” Maul defended himself and stopped rubbing his knee. “I had some maintenance done two weeks ago.” He mumbled. Shir shook her head, slightly disappointed. 

“You know you’re supposed to do it every two days or something with how frequently you’re using them and with all the jumping and stuff.” She sighed softly and stood up. “It’s your own fault for being in pain.” 

“I said I was doing fine.” He averted his eyes, not wanting to admit his weakness. 

“Sure you are.” Of course she didn’t believe him. Shir didn’t even wait for an answer and walked across the room to grab a metal box. Inside were the necessary tools to get his metallic legs back into shape. Then she sat back down on the couch. 

“Alright, let me take a look at that knee of yours.” She reached out her hand and did a little grabbing gesture to signal him to pull up his leg. Maul first didn’t want to comply, but moping and being in pain didn’t help anyone. So with a small eye roll he lifted his left leg and put it on Shir’s lap for inspection. 

“Just be careful.” He said softly. The maintenance could be even more painful than the actual aching he was already suffering from. Shir put her hands on his leg and gave him a soft smile.

“I know what I’m doing.” By now she had read up on how cybernetic prosthetics worked and about their maintenance so they would keep functioning properly and minimize the pain for its user. They were a delicate piece of work after all and she didn’t want to screw them up so he’d be unable to walk. It was a rather hard and complicated learning process, but she had familiarized herself with the basics by now. For anything more advanced they’d have to see a specialist. But with Maul being a secret crime lord that wasn’t exactly an option. 

She slid his pants up a little so she had a full view on his knee. Then she carefully removed the outer shell to take a look at the inside. “Ah yeah, I see why it hurts. The joints need to be oiled.” Along with some other stuff, but that would take too much time to explain. Instead she got right to work. 

Maul watched her work, still with arms crossed and feeling a little tense. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, but she could still touch a sensitive bit that would hurt like hell. He hadn’t even noticed how his shoulders tensed up and he was clinging onto the cloth of his sleeves. But she was very gentle and precise in her work. She had always been precise – not always gentle. God, if he only would have some actual feeling in his legs so he could feel her touch on his skin. That would’ve been amazing. 

“There, all done.” She said after a few minutes of work and put his knee back together. She placed her hand on his leg and looked at him. “Feeling better?”

Maul pulled up his leg, bending his knee a little before stretching it out and placing it back on her lap. “Yes.” He replied, his voice being but a soft whisper. Shir smiled satisfied and was about to get up. Maul hesitated but then opened his mouth again. 

“I, er… the other one hurts too.” He quickly said and pointed at his right knee. Somehow he didn’t dare to look at her. But he could feel Shir’s gaze on him and it made him feel flustered. He saw from the corner of his eye that she sat back down with a little sigh. 

“Alright. Give me that one too.” She was always so patient. Well, not always, but when it really mattered she was. Maul now also put his other leg on her lap and she started to work on that one too. This time he really tried his hardest to relax and maybe then he could… feel something. But there still was nothing. He could feel the pain running through the synthetic nervous system inside his prosthetic, but not the touch of her fingertips, which he longed for. But even without being able to sense her touch, she made him relax. The zabrak slowly started to doze off, eyes half closed and his torso leaning towards the side. Until Shir accidentally hit a weak spot and it made Maul flinch and hiss in pain.

“Oh no, I’m sorry!” She quickly said. Her tone was sincere and she held up her hands for a moment to see if he was okay. Maul bit his bottom lip and quickly calmed down again. Well there went his relaxation. 

“It’s… fine.” He exhaled sharply. “It was just for a split second.” A split second of torture! But nothing he couldn’t handle; his pain tolerance was exceptionally high after all. It just took him by surprise. Shir finished up her work after he had calmed down. Her hands remained on his knees and she traced her fingers over the cold metal for a moment, her nails sometimes getting stuck in the small scratches. Then she looked at him again. 

“You still look exhausted.” She said. Maul could hear something like concern in her tone. Now she scooted a little closer to him. “Maybe what you need is a little vacation:” She grinned. 

“Vacation?” The word already sounded alien to him. “I can’t afford to take time off. I’ve got a syndicate to run.” He removed his legs from her lap and put his feet on the ground. Oh that did feel so much better! Just as he wanted to get up, Shir grabbed his arm – he was always amazed by her physical strength – and made him sit down. 

“I’m sure you can be missed for just a few days.” Her hand on his arm trailed upwards over his shoulder and onto his chest. It sent shivers down his spine. This is exactly what he had longed for moments ago. It made him unable to reply to what she just said. Shir could feel his hearts thumbing a little faster and smirked pleased. 

“It’ll be great. Besides I could use some time off as well. These last few jobs were killing me…” She rested her head on his shoulder. “And I really need to get off this planet for something other than a job. We can go somewhere nice, like… I don’t know… Naboo?”

“We are not going to Naboo!” Maul quickly stated. Pretty or not, he was never going back to that place and having to be reminded of his fate.

“Right, sorry.” Shir whispered. For a second she had forgotten what that place meant to him. “Well… do you know any other nice planets we could go to?” 

Maul was quiet. He had been to many worlds, but all of those were awful and not really vacation destinations. Now he couldn’t believe he was actually considering this idea of taking a break. Did he not just say he couldn’t afford to take a vacation? Oh but the idea of being alone with Shir for a few days, uninterrupted by anything, was very, very nice. Maybe he could finally sleep again. 

“I can’t think of anything…” Maul mumbled. Shir’s hand on his chest was still too distracting. But he didn’t want her to stop either. “All planets I’ve visited were terrible.” 

Shir had to snort at his answer. “Why doesn’t that surprise me.” She sat up straight and grabbed a holopad from the table. Maul was visibly disappointed she removed her hand like that. Yeah… he really needed that vacation too. 

“What about Alderaan?” Shir suddenly suggested. “It’s peaceful and beautiful. I think we can just settle down somewhere in a small village. Nobody needs to know who we really are. Sound good?” She looked at him with a hopeful smile. 

Maul was thinking about this idea. Somehow it seemed dangerous to him. What if they were exposed? No, that was nonsense. Nobody knew his true identity except Shir and the shadow collective leaders. And it was highly unlikely he’d run into them there. They were busy in the outer rim anyway. 

“Fine.” He agreed. “Only because you said so.” Again, he was too proud to admit his weakness.

**Author's Note:**

> There might be a sequel to this coming in the future.


End file.
